"Lu, how’s your thigh doing now?"
Sofia made a video call, particularly concerned about Lu Yang’s health.
She had already watched the fifth round of the competition.
Others only cared about how high San Remo could fly this season.
Only Sofia would care if Lu Yang was exhausted from flying.
In that classic scene where Lu Yang defended against four players, his thigh was bleeding from being cut by the turf, which made Sofia heartbroken.
"It’s nothing, Sofia, just some simple scratches, they’ll heal quickly." Lu Yang assured her he was okay, not wanting to burden Sofia during this time.
"The Invisible Guest" was initially intended to be released during the Christmas period.
But Sofia failed.
Many professionals were not optimistic about her first work.
Moreover, although the bigwig she once offended had passed away, his loyal forces were still strongly against Sofia returning to the film industry, causing quite a few complications.
Later, Sofia settled for a mid-to-late January slot, but it got postponed again.
She was still actively working on this issue.
The explosion of "Shape of My Heart" brought her an opportunity; if everything went smoothly, "The Invisible Guest" would be released in March.
This wasn’t a very good slot.
But it boasted much less competition, allowing her to secure decent screenings.
As long as the film had quality and gained good word of mouth, recovering the costs would be no problem, and making a small profit was very likely.
This was very important.
Because Sofia had invested quite a bit of her retirement savings into it.
And because Lu Yang provided her with the script, when signing the contract with the investors, Sofia specially negotiated for Lu Yang’s pay as well.
The fee Sofia requested seemed minimal; she almost performed for free and even brought her own investment into the project, but the core goal was to share in the box office revenue.
So likewise, in the script authorization contract she signed for Lu Yang, besides ten thousand euros in cash, there was also a box office revenue-sharing agreement.
Only Sofia could secure such terms for Lu Yang.
Otherwise, any small screenwriter dreaming of participating in box office sharing would be just that—a dream!
Of course, this also related to the fact that investors didn’t have high expectations for this movie’s box office performance; otherwise, even Sofia wouldn’t have received a box office sharing contract.
In other words, these investors were just establishing goodwill with Sofia.
If the movie lost money, they would then ask Sofia to help with two or three big productions, offering full compensation, and Sofia would certainly oblige.
That would be when the real money is made.
If the movie didn’t lose money... well, then they’d wait for the next one.
In business, you can’t be too hasty; you have to bait the hook slowly for the fish to bite.
From these investors’ perspectives, they would rather the movie lose money than make a small profit.
A small profit wouldn’t gain them favors, nor much money, which would truly be a loss.
The repeated postponements of "The Invisible Guest" were also related to these factors.
However, the more this movie was kept under wraps, the higher the anticipation grew, leading everyone to see the potential for big profits, so they decided to handle it seriously, finalizing a real release date.
"Alright, then make sure to take good care of yourself. I have a gathering to attend later, but you can rest assured, it’s all women. I’ll send you a video." Sofia blew a kiss to Lu Yang.
"Alright, be safe. By the way, if you do record a video, be mindful of the angles. In the last video you sent, several girls had wardrobe malfunctions." Lu Yang felt it was necessary to remind Sofia, considering those people might also be her friends and should be presented decently.
What’s the point if they’re accidentally showing their underwear or more?
"Okay!" Sofia smiled even more brightly.
After she turned off the video, a group of female celebrities, models, and socialites hiding nearby looked as if they’d seen a ghost.
"Oh my god! He actually reminded Sofia?"
"This man really surprises me; he’s a real Jetman!"
"Many men seem gentlemanly, but sometimes, when they see such revealing videos and pictures, they mull them over and over. Your Lu is completely different!"
"It’s unbelievable. I once tested my fiancé with this trick, and he later asked me multiple times to shoot videos of gatherings, claiming it was for my safety, but in reality... he just wanted to see flashed beauties!"
"Same here, a man who called himself an artist, but was constantly meeting women, and even took some so-called ’eastern sea dog pills,’ ha!"
The eyes of the group of women were filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment.
This was actually a small trick in their circle to determine if a man was reliable.
Admittedly, there were few who believed in love in their circle, but it wasn’t nonexistent.
Among Sofia’s true friends, there were still many who pursued love instead of money or acting roles.
People tend to group with similar people.
But even so, quite a few women ended up heartbroken after testing this out.
There’s no such thing as accidentally capturing a friend’s wardrobe malfunction at a gathering.
It was simply a test by a bunch of insecure women on their intimate partners.
And the results were mostly unsatisfactory.
Lu Yang was the first to explicitly remind Sofia to be careful when recording.
Such qualities are truly rare.
"You wouldn’t understand." Sofia showed a look that hinted at the complexities of everyone’s lives; sometimes, she wished Lu Yang weren’t so gentlemanly.